Cole Hamels was supposed to keep the winning streak going. As the ace, it seemed simple. But the young lefty struggled yet again, giving up seven earned runs in a 7-3 loss to the Marlins. It dropped the Phils back to second place, 0.5 games in back of the Fish, with Sunday the deciding contest.
Hamels ran into trouble in the fourth inning, when he let former-Phillie Wes Helms beat him with a two-RBI double. (Somehow I feel Abraham Nunez and Freddy Garcia will both kill us before the year ends.) What seemed to be the end of a rally continued, as Luis Gonzalez smashed a home run to make it 4-2. In the sixth, Jorge Cantu and Cody Ross homered to put Hamels away. He didn’t have it.
This is unacceptable, especially as Hamels has struggled now for a couple games. Your ace needs to be more than effective. And a guy who says he shoots for a Cy Young award, a perfect game — all that junk, he has to perform better.
Chase Utley hit his league-leading 19th home run of the season, but the offense was finally subdued, this time by right-hander Ricky Nolasco. This will happen; it’s the ace’s job to make sure the team still wins. He didn’t.
Associated Press photo
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